Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transfer material, a recorded matter, a method of manufacturing a recorded matter, an image-recording apparatus, and an apparatus for manufacturing a recorded matter, and more specifically, to a transfer material having a laminated structure in which a base material sheet, a transparent sheet, and a coloring material-receiving layer are laminated in the stated order, a recorded matter using the transfer material and a method of manufacturing the recorded matter, and an image-recording apparatus to be used in manufacture of a recorded matter and an apparatus for manufacturing a recorded matter using the image-recording apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
Various thermal transfer recording methods have heretofore been known. Of those, a general thermal transfer method is a thermal transfer method using a thermal transfer sheet having formed on its base material sheet a colored transfer layer, the thermal transfer method involving forming an image by heating the thermal transfer sheet from its back surface with a thermal head or the like according to the shape of the image to be formed to thermally transfer the colored transfer layer onto the surface of a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. S62-238791). The thermal transfer method has been expanding the market of a full-color hard copy system for various images typified by computer graphics, still images provided by satellite communications, digital images recorded on CD-ROMs or the like, and analog images, such as a video, because of the development of various kinds of hardware and software related to multimedia.
When recorded matters are obtained by forming images on objects formed of various kinds of materials, such as paper, a resin product, and a metal, the images have heretofore been formed on the objects by thermal transfer systems. The thermal transfer systems are roughly classified into a thermal fusion transfer type and a sublimation transfer type depending on the construction of the colored transfer layer. Each of both the systems can form a full-color image, and involves: preparing thermal transfer sheets for three or four colors, such as yellow, magenta, and cyan colors, and as required, a black color; and then superimposing and thermally transferring respective color images onto the surface of one thermal transfer image-receiving sheet to form the full-color image.
As a method of manufacturing a recorded matter by a thermal fusion transfer-type thermal transfer system, for example, there has been proposed a method of manufacturing a recorded matter using a transfer material in which a receiving layer is provided on a base material in a peelable manner, and a thermal transfer sheet having a dye layer, the method involving forming an image on the transfer material by transferring the dye of the dye layer onto the receiving layer, and then heating the transfer material under a state of being brought into abutment with an object to transfer the receiving layer onto the object (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-238439).
In addition, as a method of manufacturing a recorded matter by a sublimation transfer-type thermal transfer system, there has been proposed a method of manufacturing a recorded matter involving forming an image with a sublimation transfer-type thermal transfer sheet (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-211761).
The sublimation transfer-type thermal transfer sheet enables precise formation of a gray-scale image, such as a face photograph. On the other hand, the image has the following inconvenience unlike an image formed by using an ordinary recording ink. The image is deficient in durability, such as weatherability, abrasion resistance, or chemical resistance. As a solution to the inconvenience, there has been known a method of superimposing a protective layer thermal transfer film having a thermally transferable resin layer on a thermal transfer image, the method involving transferring the thermally transferable resin layer having transparency with a thermal head, a heating roll, or the like to form a protective layer on the image (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-44130).
In addition, a method involving forming an image on an object by an inkjet system instead of forming the image by the thermal transfer system has been proposed. For example, there has been proposed a technology for printing an image on the receiving layer of a transfer material by the inkjet system, the technology involving heating the transfer material and a transfer body, while superimposing the material and the body, to transfer the receiving layer onto the transfer body (Japanese Patent Translation Publication No. 2006-517871 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H08-207450).
As a technology for protecting the receiving layer, for example, there has been proposed a method involving incorporating two or more kinds of emulsions into the surface layer of a laminated film obtained by laminating at least the surface layer and an adhesion layer on a base material (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-121515).